Wisconsin’s State Superintendent of Schools is defending the decision to change the standards for Wisconsin’s Fordward Exam and the ACT.

The Department of Public Instruction is both lowering the threshold for what is proficient, a 19 on the ACT will now count as proficient and changing the terms to measure student success. The most noticeable change is dropping the terms basic and below basic in exchange for approaching and developing.

“I feel again like this is easier to understand where kids are, and where they stand on the spectrum of learning,” Superintendent Jill Underly said in an interview.

Quinton Klabon, with the Institute for Reforming Government, said the changes are, once again, going to muddy the water to figuring out if students in Milwaukee Public Schools are actually learning.

“2012 we started with a test, 2015 they switched the test, 2016 that test didn’t work so they switched the test again. In 2020, as you know, there was no test because of the pandemic. In 2021 a bunch of kids skipped the test because they were afraid of the pandemic still, so the results were worthless. And now in 2024 there’s a new test,” Klabon explained. “So one, two, three, four, five times in the last decade we’ve switched the test. So, essentially, we have no idea how kids are doing compared to the year before.”

Klabon said the new test and the lower scores, however, are going to look very impressive.

“We’re going to see a 15% to 25% shift in proficiency,” Klabon said. “Places out in the suburbs of southeastern Wisconsin you might be 80%, 90% proficiency by the time DPI gets done with this test.”

Klabon said the worst change in DPI’s new test standards could be the drop in the expected ACT score.

“The new standard that DPI has set for what passing the state test is a 19 on the ACT,” Klabon added. “A 19. It starts with a one, not a two.”

The University of Wisconsin no longer requires the ACT in order to be admitted, but when it did none of the UW System’s 13 campuses would accept an ACT score as low as 19.

Klabon said while Wisconsin’s scores on the state tests will jump significantly this year, he says the true measure will be the national report card that comes out from the federal government later in the spring.

“Those results are going to come out. They’re going to compare Milwaukee to other cities, and they’re going to compare Wisconsin to other states,” Klabon said. “Every year we come up flat, we never improve. Other states pass us by, and I’m really worried that we’re not even going to stay put next year. I’m worried we’re going to drop because these changes seem very just interesting at this point in time.”